120201-r7-youfraThe Franciscan Youths (YOUFRA) of Enrique Villanueva, Siquijor: Feeling triumphant after giving their share to the community. Tree planting and clean up activities are one of the regular activities of these youth to help mitigate the adverse effects of climate change following their weekly formation at the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Enrique Villanueva, Siquijor. (pia-siquijor/Rizalie Anding Calibo)

Central Visayas Region

PIA Press ReleaseMonday, January 30, 2012

Solar bottle bulbs light up public market in Asturias town

by Fayette C. Riñen

CEBU CITY, January 30 (PIA) -- With the recent installation of over 100 solar bottle bulbs in the major public market in the town of Asturias, electric consumption is seen to go down which means more savings to this northwestern little town.

“We still cannot estimate how much savings can be generated to our municipal government since we just installed the solar bottle bulbs last week. But definitely, it has a significant impact in our power costs,” Mark Supatan, municipal public information officer of Asturias said.

The bulbs are made from recyclable 1.5-liter softdrink bottles of which the bottom part is used and filled with water and chlorine. Salt is added to prevent the water from turning into moss-like appearance, Supatan said.

Solar bottle bulbs are installed in ceilings but the latter has to be holed to properly accommodate the bottle bulbs which then generate power from natural sunlight.

“The solar bulbs provide about five watts of power enough to provide adequate lighting to the public market during daytime. We only use electricity when it becomes dark already,” the municipal info officer declared.

Governor Gwen Garcia issued an executive order last December institutionalizing the use of solar bottle bulbs in all local government units in the province.

“But even before the order from Gov. Garcia came out, we have already implemented the solar bottle bulbs. There are two smaller public markets in far-flung barangays here that have been installed with solar bottle bulbs sometime August or September,” Supatan disclosed.

Supatan said Asturias Mayor Alan Adlawan was keen on using the method after seeing an exhibit at the Cebu Provincial Captiol and immediately had it implemented.

With the high power costs, using alternative method to provide electricity is really essential, Supatan further said. (PIA-Cebu)